Explanations are needed

Army Painter’s Speed Paints range entered the hobby recently with a host of glowing previews talking about how speedy the product is, and how much better it is than other options, typically the comparison is with games Workshop’s Contrast range.

I linked to some tutorials myself after watching them and finding the process interesting. However there was some critical information missing from all these videos.

I became aware of this thanks to a video shared by Azazel. The word of the day is reactivation.

You can’t paint over Speed Paints with other acrylic paints without the original layer reactivating and mixing with the new coat. Bad news for anyone who has ever painted part of the model, and then undercoated after deciding to change to a new colour. That won’t work, as Bogenwald discovered while using the paints. Bad news for anyone not worrying about painting within the lines, too.

Apparently the solution is to spray a coat of varnish on the model after each an every separate colour is laid down – and left to dry for a day! You need to spray, since some people are reporting reactivation being caused by a brush on varnish too.

It appears Speed Paints have just two problems – they aren’t useful for speed, and they aren’t very good as paints.

There has been a deafening silence from other channels who have previously boosted the product. I would certainly appreciate hearing back from some of these channels on their experiences since the preview videos.

It seems possible to miss seeing an issue like this if you are quickly painting some models for a preview… unless you painted outside the lines, attempted to lay down highlights, or changed your mind on a colour scheme and tried to re-undercoat with white.

Spikey Bits has gone straight into phase 2 of the corporate gaslighting playbook, arguing that the real problem is the people who think the problem is a problem.

Apparently we are all painting wrong and ‘everybody’ knows to lay down a coat of varnish on each and every colour – after letting your paint dry for 24 hours – before coming back to the model again. I note this claim never comes with links to multiple YouTube tutorials finding this process being used, and good luck to anyone trying to find them.

In the future someone will doubtless use the reactivation feature to use Speed Paints in an interesting way. If your idea of using speed paints is as a speedy way of painting miniatures, there are other brands out there which will actually work for this purpose.